Mindfulness Programs in Police Departments

1209 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Stress among police officers

Mindfulness is a tool that can be used to improve any aspect of life. The field of law enforcement is very stressful. Within the field the people are surrounded by negativity nearly every day on and off the job. With traumatic events that occur at work being brought into their personal lives because a person simply cannot get the images or the idea of what happened out of their minds. This can lead to a negative side effect if not dealt with in the proper ways in order to safely and smartly get past the negatives of the job and only hold onto the positives that come with that line of work. With all the stress placed on professionals in law enforcement mindfulness is something that could help the people deal with everything. Law enforcement has long hours, tough work, high stress, and requires a person to be able to react quickly. With all these factors being mindful would help improve the work and professional life. Police officers would greatly improve how they handled suspects if they were thinking mindfully.
The Hillsboro police department started mindfulness program for its police officers. The Hillsboro police department began with a mindfulness program in spring of 2013. The department uses mindfulness for multiple reasons. The Hillsboro Police Department has had a troubled past, in January 2013, one of the agency’s officers became involved in a shootout with police at his home. He was drunk and off duty as he fired his AR-15. Some Hillsboro officers responded to the call and some were friends with the now former cop. The incident rattled the department and the rank and file didn’t trust its leaders.
This was when the former chief resigned and the new chief moved in and introduced mindfulness to help with...

... middle of paper ...

... .

Woolington, Rebecca . "Mindfulness in policing: 10 ways Hillsboro police use meditation training." OregonLive.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. .
Woolington, Rebecca. "Mindfulness in policing: Hillsboro cops forge revolutionary path with meditation training." OregonLive.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. .
Chopko, Brian. "The Relationship Between Mindfulness and Posttraumatic Growth in Law Enforcement Officers." Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. University of Akron, 2007. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. 30 Apr 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gilmartin, K. M. Emotional survival for law enforcement, a guide for officers and their families. 1st ed. Arizona: E-S Press, 2002.

    Read More

  • Into the Kill Zone: A Cop´s Eye View of Deadly Force

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    Police Psychology: A New Specialty and New Challenges for Men and Women in Blue. Thomas, David J. 2011.

    Read More

  • Police Suicide Research Paper

    1887 Words  | 4 Pages

    the psychological health of police, fire, and ambulance officers.” International Journal of Stress Management, Vol. 11, pp. 227-44.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Police Training

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    Glennon, owner of a police training seminar says, “[police] don’t train nearly adequately enough - or sometimes even in the right ways” (Glennon 6). Although Glennon proceeds to claim that “officer use of force has been low for many years,” his statement about police training is not one to be shrugged off (Glennon 6). Even though Glennon may believe that despite officers not training enough they still know how to use force correctly in a variety of situations, common sense and mounting evidence says otherwise. According to Ronal Serpas, former New Orleans police chief, in an interview with Juleyka Lantigua-Williams of the Atlantic, “there are millions of encounters between police and civilians every year, and that, [...] is where training can make an enormous difference.” If police are trained to see their role as “guarding the community, not defeating enemies” as Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and former city police officer and state investigator, says, then police would be less inclined to use force, lowering the rates of excessive use of force as well. If we improve the police training system then police will be more confident in their knowledge about when it is and is not appropriate to use force. They will also be more prepared to face challenges in the field and to resolve them in

    Read More

  • Police Stress Research Paper

    1400 Words  | 3 Pages

    The law enforcement officers suffer quite more job-associated stress than the people living in the community. Many have had to realize that the nature of the profession itself may be exposing officers to the increased levels of stressors. In essence, job-associated stress is among the major health concerns of the law enforcement community, and this is because it can have some impact on the physical, mental and emotional well-being of the officers. The difference in the stressors between the law enforcement personnel and other individuals is the fact that, the enforcement officials get to interact with the human population that are quite angry, upset or even uncooperative, in which case it takes some toll on

    Read More

  • The Causes And Effects Of Stress In Police Officers

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some of the world’s most-loved and well-known superheroes include Superman, Batman, and Spiderman. However great these superheroes may appear, their fictional stories also include stressors that they face everyday, such as the villains that they encounter and the pressure of being a hero and an everyday citizen. In this way, stress often negatively impacts the lives of the ones who watch over every neighborhood, every street, and every house. Such is the job of a police officer. Because stress has become an important topic in the community of law enforcement, things that are commonly discussed are the causes of stress, the effects of stress, and the handling of stress in the lives of police officers.

    Read More

  • Mindfulness Essay

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mindfulness is a concept or practice that was founded nearly 2600 years ago. It is a very integral component of the Buddhist faith and is believed to be associated with many benefits including self-control, tolerance, flexibility, objectivity, concentration, mental clarity, emotional intelligence, kindness, compassion, acceptance, and equanimity.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Implicit Biases

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    & Forst, L.S. (2016). An Introduction to Policing (8th Edition). Boston, MA USA: Cengage Learning. p.243 (245). Retrieved June 6, 2017, from https://www.betheluniversityonline.net

    Read More

  • Law Enforcement: Past Perspective

    2552 Words  | 6 Pages

    Law enforcement is an important element of the United States’ system of criminal justice apart from the corrections and the courts. It is one of the major functions of the various governmental agencies of police. It is therefore concerned with police service or functions of police departments. In this paper, the author analyzes at law enforcement and related issues. Specifically, the author discusses law enforcement, theoretical understanding of the different models of policing as well as policing styles. The author also looks at the question of stress associated with the life of a police officer and how such stress affects them. This is a purely theoretical discussion based on secondary sources of information. Time and resources constraints could not allow for a more empirical, experimental fieldwork research. The materials relied upon are mainly journal articles from respectable academic journals and databases.

    Read More

  • Police Authority, Police Power and Police Use of Force

    1435 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lyman, Michael D. (2005). The Police an Introduction. Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

    Read More

  • What Is Mindful Awareness Essay

    6031 Words  | 13 Pages

    Examination of this question requires methods to assess levels of mindfulness to determine whether individuals engaged in the practice of mindfulness are in fact becoming more mindful over time, and if so, whether these increases are responsible for the positive outcomes observed. Mindfulness is beneficial for the individual well-being and more specifically – positive affect (определение) (Glomb). + Chambers.Brown and Ryan found that Mindful capacity varies among people and can be sharpened or dulled by a variety of factors. Current research is about investigating individual differences in mindfulness and their relationship with one’s

    Read More

  • Social Psychology

    1389 Words  | 3 Pages

    Myers, D. G. (2011). Exploring psychology. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.Walker, S., & Katz, C. M. (2013). The police in America: An introduction. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

    Read More

  • Roles and Functions of Police Department

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    Walker, S. & Katz, C.M. 2011. The Police in America: An Introduction, 7th ed. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill.

    Read More

  • Police Psychology Essay

    2086 Words  | 5 Pages

    Since the inception of this niche in psychology, there has been a greater appreciation for the use of police psychological services. Now almost every police department has a separate psychology department with a number of psychologists working with its other employees. This specialized subset of psychology delivers a number of services to its employees, from assessing qualified applicants, counseling, to suspect profiling and providing expertise during hostage situations. The field has grown tremendously, especially over the last 40 years and has developed into its own sub-specialty with its own dedicated research, journals and professional organizations. During that time, there have been great strides made in developing this relationship betwe...

    Read More

  • Personal Reflection Of A Career As A Police Officer

    1688 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the past eight years as a police officer for the City of South Salt Lake, I have found that personal growth and achievement in my career have been based on certain past experiences. Such experiences have molded what my personality is today. I have found that in order to be triumphant in my personal and professional goals, it has been necessary for me to reflect not only on my strides, but also my mistakes.

    Read More

More about Mindfulness Programs in Police Departments

Open Document